Wednesday, December 18, 2013

This week I spoke about ayin hara. The Gemara in Berachos
(20a) learns that part of the beracha that Yosef received was that his
descendants would not be influenced by an ayin hara. We find several places in
Shas and Poskim where the idea of ayin hara is mentioned including a couple
that are halacha l’ma’aseh. For example, the gemara in Bava Basra 2B says one
is considered a mazik if one stands next to a friend’s field and look at it.
Rashi explains the hezek is you are putting an ayin hara on your friend. We
also pasken in Shulchan Orach that 2 brothers should not receive consecutive
aliyos because of ayin hara.The 2
questions that need to be answered is a) how does ayin hara actually work b)
how can you be mazik someone through an ayin hara if the person doesn’t deserve
to be punished.

There are two mehalchim in explaining ayin hara.

1)The Chazon Ish (Likutim
Baba Basra 14a) seems to understand that ayin hara is a koach people have that
allows them to harm someone. My understanding of the Chazon Ish is that just
like a can be mazik a person by stealing his money or physically damaging his
car, so too I can be mazik a person through my thoughts. How is it possible to
harm someone even though tey don’t deserve it? The Chazon Ish writes that you
can’t. If HKB”H determined that this person is deserving of punishment then one
way it can be brought about is through an ayin hara. For example, let’s say it
was decreed that a person should lose his car. It can either be stolen, smashed
up or lost through an ayin hara. Ayin hara is just a mechanism through which
Hashem will punish the person.

A similar mehalach is found in the Michtav
M’Eliyahu (Chelek 4 page 5&6) and elaborated on by the Sifsei Chiam (Emunah
V’Hashgacha chelek 1). Rav Dessler writes that every person has a connection on
a ruchniyu slevel. When Reuvain is jealous of Shimon, this causes a chisaron in
Shimon’s “shefa hachaim” and makes him more susceptible to be harmed. The Sifsei
Chaim explains this to mean that a person has a koach haratzon through his
machshava to harm someone. Just like HKB”H created the world through his
ratzon, we also have the ability to impact someone through our koach haratzon
and machshava.

This is similar to the Chazon Ish. However,
there is one main difference in the way the Sifsei Chaim explains it. The
Sifsei Chaim asks how can you hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it? He gives 2
answers. His first answer is that just like Reuvein has a koach haratzon and
bechirah, so too does Shimon. The question is whose koach haratzon is stronger.
Is Reuvein’s koach haratzon to hurt Shimon is stronger than Shimon’s koach
haratzon to not be hurt? If Reuvein’s koach is stronger than Shimon can be
harmed. The Sifsei Chaim explains this does not mean that Reuvein is the
shaliach of Hashem to damage Shimon. In this sense he is different than the
Chazon Ish (according to my understanding of the Chazon Ish).

His second answer is that Rav Dessler also writes that when a person
causes someone else to be jealous, he has harmed that person spiritually.
Therefore, this person now has a kitrug on him and deserves an onesh min
hashamayim. Since this person is now
b’sha’as sakana (throughhis own doing) he enables the koach haratzon of Reuvein
to affect him.

2)I heard a second mehalach
from Rav Hershel Schachter in a shiur on ayin hara. The Torah tells us that if
you mistreat a widow or an orphan and they cry out to Hashem, that you will be
punished. How does this work? When the widow cries out to Hashem, she is asking
that her tormentor be punished. Normally, Hashem lets things slide and doesn’t
punish people right away. None of us our deserving of anything-we all do
aveiros and we all deserve to be punished. The fact that we aren’t punished
right away is part of Hashem’s chesed. However, when someone asks Hashem to
punish us, then He looks at what we have done more closely and decides if we
really deserve what we have.

Similarly, when someone is jealous of
someone’s money or wealth there is an implicit tefilla to Hashem that it’s not
fair that this person deserves what he has. The jealous person is asking Hashem
to take away what we have because it isn’t fair. Consequently, Hashem will look
more closely at whether we deserve what we have and He might take away certain
things.

The poskim point out that an ayin hara will
not affect someone who is not makpid.How are we to understand this based on the two mehalchim?

According to the Chazon Ish/Rav Dessler
perhaps we can say that if you are not makpid about an ayin hara, this means
that you don’t walk around making people jealous of you. As Rav Dessler says,
if you are a “nosein” people won’t be jealous of you. M’meilah if everyonre
likes you and is not jealous they won’t put in ayin hara on you. According to
Rav Schachter’s mehalech, he mentions that the way to combat ayin hara is
through tefilla and by recognizing “ein od milvado”. Perhaps that is also the
pshat in not being makpid about an ayin hara. When you realize everything is
from Hashem and “ein od milvado”, you by nature also won’t be makpid about an
ayin hara.